Product Designer

Company Description

iKhokha is a place where chance-takers become change-makers. At iKhokha, we believe in better. As you'd expect, our pace is fast-moving and ever-changing. We like it that way.  As one of the fastest-growing FinTech's in Africa, we've built a team of global change-makers who want to make an impact. If you believe in a better future, be a chance-taker and help us empower small businesses in South Africa.

Job Description

Are you a visionary with a passion for designing seamless, user-centred experiences? We’re looking for a talented Product Designer to help us transform ideas into innovative, user-friendly products. If you thrive in a dynamic environment and love bringing creative concepts to life, we want to hear from you! 

So, what will you do?  

The Product Designer is responsible for creating high-quality, user-friendly interfaces across multiple platforms, including Android, iOS, web views, and card machines. This role requires deep collaboration across multidisciplinary teams, focusing on delivering intuitive, platform-specific experiences while ensuring seamless handoff to developers through the use of best practices in design systems, prototyping, and design standards. The designer must have a strong understanding of responsive design, platform-specific constraints, and user behaviours on different devices. 

In addition to the above, you will: 

Product Design:  

• Collaborate with the Product Design Manager to contribute to the product design strategy, ensuring alignment with business objectives 
• Manage and prioritize multiple projects effectively, with a focus on delivering high-quality design outputs on time 
• Maintain a high standard of design execution by rigorously applying UI and/or UX best practices, ensuring designs meet both user needs and business goals 
• Facilitate the smooth handover of designs to developers, ensuring clear, well-documented files and specifications 
• Stay up-to-date with global design standards and best practices, constantly seeking to elevate the quality of design work produced by the team. 

User Experience Design:  

• Frame and understand design challenges early in the project lifecycle, incorporating user research and business problems 
• Collaborate with research analysts to gather insights, validate hypotheses, and translate them into actionable design decisions 
• Apply user-cantered design principles throughout the design process, creating intuitive, scalable solutions that meet both user and business need.  

User Interface Design: 

• Develop user interface designs that adhere to usability heuristics while being delightful, accessible, and on-brand 
• Utilize and contribute to the product design system, ensuring components are scalable and consistent across projects 
• Demonstrate a deep understanding of grid systems, layouts, and responsive design, ensuring that interfaces adapt seamlessly across devices.  

Collaboration and Communication:  

• Maintain excellent communication with stakeholders, ensuring design goals are clearly understood and expectations are met 
• Use tools like Figjam and Miro for ideation and collaborative workshops, ensuring a shared understanding of project objectives 
• Provide clear, actionable feedback to peers and foster a collaborative design environment that promotes professional growth.  

Design System & Developer Collaboration:  

• Work closely with developers to ensure smooth handover and that designs are implemented to spec, leveraging Figma’s Dev Mode and other collaboration tools 
• Maintain organized and up-to-date master design files, incorporating feedback from both design and development teams 
• Contribute to the design system by creating, maintaining, and documenting reusable components and design patterns. 

Essential Collaboration & Preparation for Design Execution:  

• Collaborate with stakeholders to ensure clear business requirements and creative briefs are provided before initiating design work 
• Engage in a collaborative feedback loop, providing input on design efforts, timelines, and resources needed to achieve project goals 
• Ensure mutual agreement on design deliverables, milestones, and timelines with all relevant stakeholders before commencing design work. 

Qualifications

• A degree or certification in Interaction Design, User Experience Design, Product Design, or a related field. 

Deal breakers: 

• 3-5 years of experience as a Product Designer with an understanding of both UX and UI practices but stronger focus on UI.   

Additional Skills & Knowledge: 

• Design thinking and User experience design, User interface design, Design chapter contribution, Software: Figma, Adobe XD, Miro 

User Interface (UI) Design:  

• Proficient in creating pixel-perfect UI designs that solve customer and business problems, ensuring usability, accessibility, and brand consistency. 
• Expertise in working with Figma’s advanced features such as auto layout, branching, nested layers, grids, and tokens. 
• Skilled in prototyping with interactive elements and testing flows to ensure smooth user experiences. 
• Mastery in contributing to and working with a robust design system, including working with Figma master design files, components, and variants. 

User Experience (UX) Design:  

• Strong expertise in human-cantered design, user flows, and creating wireframes that prioritize user needs and business outcomes. 
• Experience with design thinking methodologies and usability testing to validate hypotheses. 
• Experience in facilitating research, research methodologies and synthesis of insights to guide design decisions. 
• Ability to work with business analysts and service designers to identify opportunities for improving user journeys and addressing pain points through design solutions. 

Developer Handoff: 

• Demonstrated experience with dev handoff using Figma’s Dev Mode, ensuring designs are export-ready and accompanied by detailed design specifications. 
• Familiarity with design tokens and their application in scalable, responsive design. 
• Knowledge of how to structure and organize design files for developer collaboration, ensuring smooth transitions from design to build. 
• Ability to write clear, concise functional design documentation that outlines key design decisions, user flows, and interactions as part of the design handover process. 

Collaboration & Tools:  

• Strong communication skills to articulate design rationale and collaborate effectively with stakeholders, developers, and cross-functional teams. 
• Advanced proficiency with collaboration tools such as Figjam, Miro, and Slack, ensuring effective and efficient teamwork and idea generation. 
• Experience with analytical behavioural tools such as Hotjar to gather insights into user interactions, helping to inform design decisions and improve user experiences. 
• Ability to gather and incorporate feedback from stakeholders, ensuring the design aligns with business and user needs. 

Additional Information

Perks of joining the Tribe? 

• Work in a high-growth company with tangible results you're accountable for. 
• Enjoy hybrid and in office work models.  
• Competitive remuneration and benefits, including reduced Gap cover rates. Medical Aid and Group Risk scheme contributions. 
• Visionary leadership. 
• Seize the opportunity for study leave.   
• Access to on-demand learning at your fingertips. 
• Experience a friendly, collaborative culture with a team of all-round-lekker humans (it’s true, we surveyed our Employees, and they told us so). 
• If you find yourself at HQ, coffee on tap and a selection of hot beverages provided by our very own onsite Barista.